Actress Rachel Weisz Talks About Admiration for Tight-Knit Jewish Communities Ahead of Her New Film ‘Disobedience’

Email a copy of "Actress Rachel Weisz Talks About Admiration for Tight-Knit Jewish Communities Ahead of Her New Film ‘Disobedience’" to a friend

Rachel Weisz, right, and Rachel McAdams in a scene from “Disobedience.” Photo: Screenshot.

Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz talked on Thursday about the sense of family in Jewish communities ahead of her new film, in which she plays a Jewish lesbian chasing an old flame.

“Disobedience,” a story of Jewish faith and forbidden love, takes place in a North London neighborhood located only three subway stops away from where the 48-year-old Weisz grew up.

The Jewish actress toldOut magazine she was fascinated by the notion of community in the Orthodox neighborhoods in the UK. She said, “There are beautiful things about it. Everyone lives so isolated now — you don’t really have community anymore. Here, people will literally buy you milk if you’re sick.”

In “Disobedience,” Weisz plays Ronit, a New York-based photographer who is estranged from her Orthodox roots in London but returns home after discovering the death of her father, a revered rabbi. Distanced by her old friends and family, who thought they would never see her again, Ronit rekindles an old, forbidden flame with Esti, played by Rachel McAdams, who is now married to their childhood friend Dovid and lives an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle.

Related coverage

Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz -- who plays the character of Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt in the newly released movie "Denial" --...

The film, which Weisz also produced, is based on the 2006 novel of the same name by British author Naomi Alderman. Weisz said about her decision to option the rights to the novel, “I love the fact that it was a story exploring nonconformity, sexual freedom, agency, all those things. And it was set in this sort of world that isn’t really our world…It’s a world we don’t know much about. It’s a very private world. ”

“Disobedience” opens in theaters on April 27. Watch the trailer below: